Gig of a liftime: Neil Tennant

The Pet Shop Boys frontman talks to Robert Colville about David Bowie's performance at Newcastle City Hall, 1972

I went with about five friends, in the middle of our A-levels. The venue was more than half empty, but that only made it more exciting, almost conspiratorial.

We all sort of fell in love with him. He had spiky red hair, and this weird, quilted lizard suit, and was just incredibly charismatic.

He made some very camp joke, and we all laughed at it. Before the next song he said: "This is for all the strange people in the audience", and we thought he meant us.

Then at the climactic moment - in Suffragette City, when he goes "Wham, bam, thank you ma'am" - all these little square posters were thrown off the balcony. We all grabbed them, then hung around backstage afterwards.

I've still got his autograph - I kept it in my copy of Ziggy Stardust.

The Pet Shop Boys and Dresden Sinfoniker's soundtrack to Battleship Potemkin is out now.